Mailbag for Sept. 20: Meals help so many; thanks to Galeana

First national flags of the Confederate States of America and flowers were placed at the Robert E. Lee memorial in Fort Myers, Fla., over the weekend. The American flag was placed there by the Lee County NAACP the day of the Charlottesville attack.

Meals help so many

Hi, I am a MRE (Meal ready to eat) and I have a story to tell. I and 19 other friends were put in clean white boxes, then into a large box. I then heard a voice say that we are going to southwest Florida to help with hurricane relief.

Next, a friendly National Guardsman put us into an SUV. Then we heard a prayer said over us and other friends in the SUV, socks, shoes, toilet paper, bug spray and water bottles. The prayer made us feel good and united to help others.

Some of us were let out of the big box on Edison Avenue at the Grace Church campus. We heard there was no electricity, so no cooked meals were available. But us MREs are ready all the time. We are a proud bunch. Some of us went on journeys in plastic bags to families. One lady said she was so hungry, she had not eaten in days. A MRE was ready to help her, so she sat on the sidewalk and ate it right then. Us MREs love to disappear and bring a smile to someone. I think our magic worked and we brought smiles to many people that day.

Then I heard the man say we are going to Centennial Park. Many came and took us MREs and water, along with some socks, shoes, toilet paper and bug spray. There was the magic again! We disappeared and brought many smiles.

I would like to dedicate the story of the MRE to the many volunteers that took their time and found a place to work some magic and bring smiles to some people.

Fred Matthews, Sockman Ministries, North Fort Myers

Thanks to Galeana

Kudos and thanks to the professionals at Galeana Chrysler Dodge Jeep. As if Irma and its aftermath weren’t bad enough our only vehicle’s battery gave out during all the following confusion.

Galeana immediately stepped up with a loaner car, did the necessary repair on our vehicle and returned it to us all in the same day. This without electricity.

If you are in the market for a new or used vehicle consider Galeana. You won’t be disappointed.

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Florida Voices tells the stories of everyday Floridians, examining what issues matter most to them in the Sunshine State.

Theater provides needed laughs

On Sunday afternoon, the Laboratory Theater of Florida performed, "Sordid Lives." For free! We didn't feel much like going to see a play, but went anyway. The cast and crew probably didn't feel much like performing, but they did. And something astonishing happened.

For the first time in more than a week, we laughed! And everybody else laughed! OUT LOUD! And it was absolutely therapeutic. The stress of Hurricane Irma had robbed us of many things, but none as important as laughter.

We felt renewed, and it was as if our small world had somehow 'righted' itself. We are grateful to every single person involved with Laboratory Theater.

Do yourself a favor; go see "Sordid Lives" and laugh again.

Kay Ammon

Removing Lee statues

In pushing back against the removal of Confederate statues, some of your readers whose letters you have printed have used a psychological trick to make the issue seem ridiculous. That trick is to suggest extremes – the renaming of Lee County, the removal of statues of Jefferson and other prominent figures from the past, because they owned slaves. These writers not so slyly suggest we are on a slippery slope of denying our entire past. No, that is not what is happening. There is no equivalency.

The removal of the statues, which were put up decades after the end of the Civil War during a period when Jim Crow laws were re-emerging, is designed to remove obvious focal points for discrimination against blacks. The men these statues honor have symbolic significance for racists. Few in Lee County even give a thought to why the county is named Lee. I don’t. But the statues are more prominent – their removal is an effort to eliminate the triggers that support racism. Their removal is also a message that intolerance for minorities will not be celebrated, will not be tolerated. If you insist that is ridiculous, you are part of the problem.

Harriet Stanton-Leaffer, Matlacha

A global warming crisis

We have had many discoveries in the scientific world. We can trace finger prints to their owner, we can analyze DNA and see that a person carries genes which predict illness to them and their off spring. We can develop immunizations that prevents us from getting horrible diseases. We can predict the path of a solar eclipse and when it will take place to the minute.

How come the Republican Party can believe all the scientific developments but refuse to believe all the scientists that state we are causing the destruction of our world as we have known it.

I believe it is like the cigarette companies that denied that cigarettes cause cancer. The money comes before anything. The Republicans receive big money from the companies that drill for fossil fuel. The land is destroyed, the climate is changing but their allegiance is not swayed. Their allegiance is not to their constituents or to their country. It is to the big bucks they get passed by the oil companies and the oil companies don't care about anything but money either.

How many storms do we need like Sandy and now Harvey and Irma before people elect someone who will put the country and people first and start working to reduce the effects of global warming?